Cuomo due here with latest plan for Buffalo billion

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will be in Buffalo today to release the latest economic development funding plan as part of his 2012 vow to spend $1 billion on Western New York job-creation efforts.

Cuomo plans to make a “major economic development” announcement in the early afternoon at the University at Buffalo, according to invitations received by business executives and government officials.

Cuomo aides declined to comment on the trip or the announcement.

Cuomo made his Buffalo Billion promise last year. The administration said projects already awarded from that promise include $50 million for new laboratory space and equipment at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and $10 million to remove a one-mile stretch of the Robert Moses Parkway south of Niagara Falls to replace it with a new road to better connect the downtown area with the falls.

The governor also said money would go to a workforce training center in Buffalo to attract and retain manufacturing companies in the region.

In all, the Cuomo administration said $65 million of the total $1 billion has been allocated in the past year.